EVwire brief: Volkswagen intends to break off the automated-driving partnership it runs with supplier Bosch, according to a Sunday report in the German daily Bild that leaned on several unnamed sources. Pulling out would fit a wider drive at Volkswagen to trim costs and claw back competitiveness.
By Bild's account, the effort has soaked up roughly €1.5 billion ($1.71 billion) and still fell short of where it needed to be, with the carmaker's own reviews judging the tech as not yet up to par.
The paper says nothing becomes final before Monday, and that Volkswagen is already lining up a different partner to take over, aiming to have a deal signed by September.
Bild claims that Volkswagen is already lining up a different partner to take over the partnership
Bosch and Cariad would not address the report head-on. In a joint statement, the two said they don't speak to market speculation, adding that they keep the partnership under regular review.
"As a matter of principle, we regularly review our development partnership and continuously assess whether it aligns with our strategic and technological goals as well as current market developments."
Cariad enlisted Bosch to help build its vehicles’ driver-assistance and self-driving stack
Context:
The tie-up goes back to 2022, when Volkswagen's in-house software outfit Cariad enlisted Bosch to help build the driver-assistance and self-driving stack meant to run across the group's brands, with the stated aim of taking automated driving global at mass-market scale.
Cariad has been a long-running headache for Volkswagen, tied to software holdups that delayed vehicles across the group and that have pushed the company to hedge elsewhere, including a separate software-defined-vehicle joint venture with Rivian.
The reported break comes with Volkswagen under serious pressure. Last Friday, separate reports had the company mulling the shutdown of four plants in Germany and an expansion of layoffs that could reach 100,000 jobs. Insiders told Bild the automated-driving work had fallen short of what the company hoped for after years of investment.
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